HTC's 10 Evo is a Bolt for the rest of the world

As rumored, HTC today took the wraps off the HTC 10 Evo, a global version of the Sprint-branded Bolt. Aside from some branding changes, this is the same phone we recently reviewed, with a questionable assortment of hardware: HTC 10-style metal unibody, a bigger 5.5-inch screen, water resistance, USB-C audio only (#donglelife) and a nearly two-year-old Snapdragon 810 processor, with 3GB of RAM. There's also a big focus on audio in general, with the bundled Type-C cans debuting HTC's BoomSound Adaptive Audio.

At least the software is bang up-to-date, with the latest Android 7.0 Nougat preloaded along with HTC's Sense interface.

The Bolt is a definite look at what HTC has in store for us next year. I'm expecting a super cool aluminum smartphone with top-of-the-line hardware and a rear-facing camera that can better capture low light. For now, consider the Bolt a mere test run that shows off Sprint's network — and one that isn't likely worth $600 to you.

The HTC 10 Evo will launch in Europe this month, but there's no word of any carrier partnerships or SIM-free price just yet. To the latter point, the current £500 unlocked price of the higher-specced HTC 10 (not to mention competitively priced rivals like the OnePlus 3T3 could make things tricky for HTC. For what it's worth, the Bolt's $600 cost would place it around the same price point as the HTC 10 in the UK, if prices were converted over directly.